While millions across the world are grappling with high blood pressure or hypertension—a major cause of heart diseases and deaths—managing the condition is extremely crucial. According to experts, those who are prone to high blood pressure should make a few lifestyle changes that can help them lower it.

According to a new study, just five minutes of physical activity like climbing stairs can help manage blood pressure. The research, conducted by a team of scientists from ProPASS, or Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting and Sleep Consortium—an international academic collaboration led by the University of Sydney and University College London—found that stair climbing could lower systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading) by 0.68 points and diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number) by 0.54 points.

According to the findings of the study, published in the journal Circulation, if you replace sedentary behaviors with stair climbing, you will see “clinically meaningful improvements” in blood pressure. “High blood pressure is one of the biggest health issues globally, but unlike some major causes of cardiovascular mortality, there may be relatively accessible ways to tackle the problem in addition to medication,” Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, the Director of the ProPASS Consortium from the Charles Perkins Centre, said in a statement.

“The finding that doing as little as five extra minutes of exercise per day could be associated with measurably lower blood pressure readings emphasizes how powerful short bouts of higher intensity movement could be for blood pressure management,” he added.

According to experts, regularly climbing stairs is like doing physical activity which increases your heart rate. This, in the long run, strengthens the heart muscle and makes it more efficient at pumping blood and oxygen throughout your body.

Increasing your heart rate through physical activity also regulates and lowers blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol levels, which are significant risk factors for heart disease.

Stair climbing is not the only option for heart health. Experts feel that there are other activities as well, like brisk walking, running, bicycling, or high-speed interval training, which are equally beneficial. What’s important is a moderate or high-intensity level.

While the study found that regularly climbing five flights of stairs a day was linked to lower blood pressure levels, other factors like lifestyle and diet are also part of the equation, a few of which include: